


In Their Midst

by Jukithecat



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Gen, Imperial Prompto Argentum, Imperial!Prompto, Kinda-not-really, MT!Prompto, Mild Language, Traitor!Prompto, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:09:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24402589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jukithecat/pseuds/Jukithecat
Summary: Prompto manages to befriend Noctis.. but he has ulterior motives.
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia & Prompto Argentum & Noctis Lucis Caelum & Ignis Scientia, Prompto Argentum & Noctis Lucis Caelum, Prompto Argentum & Verstael Besithia
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Mission Assigned

**Author's Note:**

> So uh I think I saw somewhere that Versus XIII Prompto was meant to be a traitor  
> And it doesn't matter whether or not that was true, because I immediately began to think of a scenario in which Prompto was a traitor.  
> That train of thought eventually became thought out enough that it could be considered a story  
> So here I am  
> Writing it
> 
> In this fic, Prompto will have the personality I imagine Versus XIII Prompto would've had- mostly just to make the traitor thing easier. Everyone else will be depicted how they are in XV (assuming I can do that correctly).
> 
> I'd like to add as a note:  
> I don't plan for this to have any sort of romance. This will all be purely platonical. If you want to ship the characters according to this fic, go ahead! But I won't be putting any romance/sexual relationships into this story.

Prompto bowed to Emporer Iedolus after receiving his mission: Befriend Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum. Spy on him. Most importantly, be ready to attack and capture him as soon as necessary. He rubbed at the bump slightly below his barcode- Chief Besithia implanted a chip that would vibrate to indicate when it was time to capture him. One buzz meant he needed to get Noctis alone within ten minutes and keep him there. Two buzzes meant it was time for capture.

The reason he was chosen for this mission, or more accurately, the reason why this mission had even been thought of was because of what had happened to Prompto when he was young. As an infant, he had been captured by the Lucians and lived in Lucis for many years. Six years, if he remembered correctly. He was rescued by Niflheim and brought back home after those six years, but he could no longer be made into a proper MT soldier. By then, he had already developed an ego and, as Chief Besithia put it, an "ego death" was a far more difficult process than never letting an MT develop an ego in the first place. It was then decided that Prompto would be raised as a human child, in the hopes that one day, he would do something great like his creator.  
This was his chance to prove himself.  
His chance to prove that even if he was a failure as an MT, he was not a failure to the Empire.

\-----

As the airship flew to Lestallum, Prompto read up on the files he was given before his departure, files made up to make Prompto's existence in Lucis more believable.  
The file that explained to him how he should act read:  
"Prompto Argentum  
17 years of age, birthday October 25th"  
Should be easy enough, that information was true, at least. Well, except for the "Argentum" part, but it wasn't like he used "Besithia" when introducing himself much anyways.  
"Grew up in an ordinary Lucian household where he was homeschooled for a majority of his life. Homeschooling is no longer an option for him, as his parents both work in jobs that require them to be out of Lucis a very large majority of each year. This is his first year of public schooling."  
There the lies were. Lies made to cover up the fact that while the Empire somehow managed to acquire property in Lucis, they could not send anyone to act as Prompto's parents, as well as lies to cover up how Prompto knew nothing about public schools.  
The rest of the file explaining how he should behave essentially told him to act as he normally does, but hide anything that hinted at him being from Niflheim.

Prompto finished up reading the files as the airship landed near Lestallum. The pilot of the airship guided Prompto out and into a car, where he was driven to Lucis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shortness of the chapter- I seem to be really bad at making stories and chapters long without dragging them out. I felt like it would be appropriate to end this chapter after Prompto reaches Lucis and.. I guess it didn't take that much for it to happen.


	2. Lucis Infiltration

Soon enough, the car arrived at the gates of Lucis. The driver managed to produce passports that the guards, the Kingsglaive, as Prompto was informed, somehow accepted. Upon receiving approval, they drove into Lucis, and then, into Insomnia.

Prompto was now within the Crown City's walls. He felt an itch of excitement- Here he actually was, in the enemy’s territory, to carry out his mission as a spy. The excitement soon was overcome with a sense of duty. Now that he was here, he had to fulfill his role, and ensure that no one figured out who he really was until it was too late. 

Lights outside the car caught his attention. It had apparently become night on the way to Lucis, and the streets were filled with bright lights. Prompto couldn’t help but gape at all of the colors. In Niflheim, a large majority of the streets were dim at night, the only lights coming from street lamps that gave a somewhat eerie glow. Here, however, in Lucis, buildings advertising their wares flashed an abundance of beautiful, bright colors. Red and yellow lights for that restaurant over there, blue and purple lights for the clothing store they passed, red and pink lights for the- he felt his cheeks flush as he realized it was an underwear store for women. 

He turned his attention instead to what seemed to be a family walking on the streets and almost immediately noticed something in their expression. A state of defenseless calm and peace. A striking difference to the expressions he saw in Niflheim. Normally he wouldn’t have noticed anything wrong with the emotions he saw in the faces of those in Niflheim, but now he realized that most of the people he saw in the Empire had an expression of guarded stress that seemed to always be ready to fight. In comparison, Lucis seemed so.. peaceful. Prompto felt a twinge of guilt at the idea that he would likely be the one to ruin the state of peace that the civilians enjoyed. He quickly ignored it. He had to do this in order to get the approval of Chief Besithia, of the Emperor, of Niflheim itself. How it affected the civilians of the enemy nation shouldn’t matter to him.

It didn’t take long before the car arrived at their destination: an inconspicuous apartment building. The driver left the vehicle, prompting him to follow. Prompto took his suitcase out of the trunk and followed the driver to a door of one of the apartments.

The driver held out a set of keys which Prompto took and unlocked the apartment with. The driver left, and Prompto realized (quite a bit late) that the driver hadn’t spoken the entire trip. Well.. not that it mattered. It wasn’t like Prompto said anything to him, so the driver had no reason to speak to him.

….  
Prompto made a mental note to talk to people more. How would he get close to Noctis without speaking?

He opened the door to the apartment and entered, unsurprised by how normal it appeared inside considering how unassuming it was on the outside. It was the most realistic and ideal situation; an average apartment in the inside and out would allow him to invite Noctis over without appearing suspicious.

After entering the room he assumed to be his bedroom, Prompto unpacked his suitcase. He put his clothes in the drawers, haphazardly “organizing” them. He placed his camera on the nightstand- an item given to him to further assist in his spywork. It was a lucky thing Prompto enjoyed photography normally. Or perhaps it wasn’t, since turning his photography into a necessary job might ruin the fun of it.

He finished up unpacking and headed towards the kitchen, where he found an envelope lying on the counter. He picked it up and read the contents.

“Hello, Prompto

We hope you find the living accommodations sufficient. There will be letters like this sent to you on a twice monthly basis. They will be disguised as letters from your parents, in order to avoid suspicion. We’ll send the same amount of yen with every letter. It should be enough for you to survive off of. Do not take this for granted, as it is rather difficult to find places that will allow us to exchange gil for yen. You do not have to worry about paying the rent with this money, as we will pay for it from the outside.

‘Love’,  
Mom and Dad”

Prompto felt a smirk rise on his face as he read the letter. The thought of one of the Imperial commanders spending their time to write this to him amused him almost as much as the thought of a woman that was supposedly his mother writing this with Chief Besithia. The attitude of it seemed far too different from the behavior of those who raised him, most of whom were servants to Emperor Iedolas, so he couldn’t even imagine one of them writing this.

He took out the yen. 30,000 yen was inside the envelope alongside the letter. From what he understood about Lucian currency, it should be more than enough to survive off of if he had no rent to pay.

Taking out the files explaining his situation once more, Prompto read through the information about the school he was meant to attend. Apparently, it started in two days. In order to make it easier to approach Noctis, it was apparently the same school the prince was attending. The idea seemed strange, almost funny to Prompto. The Prince of Insomnia, attending a public school that anyone, even a traitor, apparently, could easily get into? How was Lucis still standing? Continuing to read through the school files, he made a mental note of the name of the school and the map. He pulled out his phone and searched the name of it on the map. The map on his phone matched with the map from the files. Good, so he could reliably use the online maps here.

In the school files, there was something called a report card. According to the file folder, he would be able to carry this around in the school and not be considered suspicious, as everyone would have one. The report card seemed to be the most useful, it listed his locker, locker combination, classroom locations and the ones who seemed to be in charge of each classroom, and a few other things he didn’t quite understand. What was a school principal? Oh well.. He’d probably figure it out while he was attending school.

Deducing that there was nothing more he could learn from the school files without actually going, Prompto got onto his phone and started playing Kings’ Knight. He was glad to figure out that Lucis apparently didn’t censor it. That was one of the things he had been worried about: Did Lucis have any censorship laws, and if so, what were they?

..He decided he’d figure out what Lucis may or may not censor later. For the time being, it was Kings’ Knight time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter was 1100 words long and I feel much better about posting this than I did chapter one. I hope to make every chapter from now on at least 1000 words, because a 500 word chapter just feels far too short. If I can't reasonably make the chapter 1000 words, I won't try to push it, because I don't want to just put in a bunch of filler text in order to make it longer (hi essays). But the goal from now on will be 1000 words.


	3. Blossoming Friendship

During the next two days before school started, Prompto spent his time walking around the streets of Insomnia in order to get more familiar with everything. He had decided to greet everyone he passed in the hopes that it’d make talking to people, namely Noctis, easier. Over the two days that passed, he still didn’t feel comfortable about randomly greeting people he saw, but hoped it was enough for him to be able to converse with Noctis without making it extremely awkward. Because what good as a spy would he be if the prince avoided him thanks to his awkwardness? Well, he could try stalking instead but.. That seemed like a bad idea for several reasons (rude, weird, it was the fucking prince who probably had a crapload of guards who’d likely immediately notice if someone was stalking him, Prompto wasn’t trained to stalk him). Pretending to be the prince’s friend was the only option for him.

\-----

It was the first day of school and Prompto had familiarized himself enough with the quickest route to the building. In his backpack, he carried the only things he could figure out that he’d need- pencils, pens, and a few notebooks. He hoped he could buy whatever else he may need at a later date. He was early upon arriving, but it was still an appropriate time to arrive, as there were several other students filing into the building. He looked at his phone to check the time- he was fifteen minutes early. Should be enough time to find his locker, put his backpack away, and find his first class.

As he walked into the building, he heard the sound of a car and, although he should’ve just ignored it and moved on ahead since it was likely any other car, he turned around to see the arrival.

Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum emerged from inside the car. NOT just any other car, then. The prince seemed to say something to the driver as he picked up his own backpack, which he slung over his shoulder. The car drove off and Noctis headed toward the building, meeting eyes with Prompto when he noticed he was watching, but when he passed Prompto, who couldn’t muster up the friendly  _ “Hey!” _ he wanted to, he turned his gaze ahead and continued walking.

Instinctively, Prompto held out a hand to try and stop him, but the hand didn’t quite reach as thoughts filled his head of what he should say,  _ “Hey, Prince Noctis!”, “Wait up, Prince Noctis!” “How are you, Prince?”  _ He tried to open his mouth to say something, anything, but it was too late. The prince had entered the building. His hand fell to his side, his head hanging in defeat at the failure.

With a quick inhale, he raised his head back up. There were always more chances. Just because his dumbass mouth didn’t want to work at that moment didn’t mean it wouldn’t work later. While he didn’t have any sort of time to expect a signal, he probably had at least a few days to work out a friendship deep enough with the prince that would allow him to get him somewhere alone. If he couldn’t speak to Noctis today, he could try again tomorrow. And the day after that. There was no need to rush this. Probably.

The lack of a specific time for capturing Noctis scared him quite a bit.

\-----

It turned out that Prompto had six out of seven of his classes with Noctis, as well as lunch. All of which he managed to fuck up. Every time he had a chance, he messed up by just standing there and saying nothing like a goddamn  _ idiot. _ Why was it so hard to just  _ speak?!  _ From what he could tell, it’s not like Noctis acted anything like a prince. Hell, he saw him picking out the vegetables from his food earlier like a child! So why couldn’t he just say something to him like anyone else?

He sighed as he took his stuff out of his backpack. As it turned out, he definitely needed more things for certain classes, including folders. And he didn’t need as many notebooks as he brought… he brought eight. Seven for each class and an extra just in case. As it turned out, only four of his classes needed them. Well, at least he had a few days to buy what he needed before classes started.

As he was leaving the building, he noticed Noctis leaning on the school’s wall, playing something on his phone that vaguely looked like King’s Knight. Curiosity and the hope of a similar interest fluttered inside of him and he approached the prince to better see what he was playing. 

When he got closer, he could make out the screen and could tell the prince was indeed playing Kings’ Knight. Finally, a starting point aside from  _ “Hey, you’re the prince and I need to spy on you!” _

Finally mustering the courage now that he had something to work on, he jogged over and clapped Noctis on the shoulder. He instantly regretted that when the prince jumped in surprise, pausing his game seemingly upon reflex, but started to speak with confidence he definitely did not feel at that moment. “I’m Prompto. Prompto.. Argentum. I noticed you were playing Kings’ Knight!” 

His thoughts immediately crashed into panic.  _ Oh god I almost said Besithia- did he notice I hesitated? Was I too forward? Too disrespectful? What if he- _

The thoughts were broken as Noctis replied with a bored voice, “Yeah, I’ve been playing it ever since it came out.”

A somewhat forced grin rose on Prompto’s face. “Really? What class is your main?”

“The paladin.” The answer was short, but he had a noticeably less bored expression as he put away the phone to look at the one speaking to him. “What about you?”

The grin slowly became easier, more real, as he replied, “The gunner. I tend to find long range characters much easier.”  _ Definitely has nothing to do with the fact I was trained to be proficient in guns. Nope. Not at all. _

The prince looked thoughtful as he considered the reply. Then he pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote something on it, handing it to Prompto. “That’s my player ID. Someone attacking from far away would definitely help me out on some of these missions, if you want.” He rubbed the back of his neck before continuing, “I’m sure you already know, but I’m Noctis. Don’t worry about including my title when you’re talking to me, it feels too formal.”

“Of course!” Prompto smirked as he continued, “Your Highness.”

“What did I just tell you!” Noctis snapped at him, but it was clear he was joking as much as Prompto was.

“Riiiiiight, sorry, Sir Princely Noctis the Majestic Highness!” Prompto chuckled as a smile trying to appear annoyed rose on the other’s face.

The conversation continued until a car pulled up and Noctis had to leave. Prompto started walking home after the car had pulled away, thinking of what had just happened. Talking to Noctis had been so  _ easy. _ Not only was there no one around him as he had first suspected (he expected either a bunch of guards or a bunch of people who were already his friends), but it was just.. So easy to  _ converse _ with him. To  _ laugh _ with him.

If it.. If the situation had been different..

From that one interaction, he could tell he would have loved to be a  _ true _ friend to Noctis.

He felt a pang of guilt. He wasn’t sure if it was towards Noctis for betraying him, or towards Niflheim for even considering to be the enemy prince’s real friend, but he hated it. He started to wish that he hadn’t been sent on this mission. He wished he would’ve just stayed in Niflheim all of his life and become a proper MT. MTs didn’t have emotions. He wouldn’t be feeling this guilt. He wouldn’t even be on this mission if he wasn’t such a failure of an MT. But no, he was here, he was (unfortunately) as human as a clone could get, and he had a mission.

And that mission was to be someone Noctis would trust so that Niflheim could capture him.

And he would complete his mission.

No matter what it took.

For Niflheim.

For the Emperor.

For Chief Besithia’s… his father’s approval.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I somewhat based the school in this story off of mine, to make it a bit easier to write.
> 
> Also, I want to let anyone know who's reading this that I often go back and make edits to previous chapters. They're not anything major, just minor edits so things make a bit more sense, but I thought I should let it be known!
> 
> This chapter had a bit more cussing than the previous chapters.. which I'm pretty sure had none. I added a Mild Language tag to accommodate that! I was originally planning to have mild language in this story anyways, I just didn't know how to incorporate it until now? I also just might have not been comfortable enough until this chapter. But just a warning for anyone who minds, the kind of cussing depicted in this chapter will likely be the norm from now on.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so I apparently can't proofread for crap. When I tried to proofread my own work, I just can't focus on what I'm reading and everything turns to mush in my head. (even though I can read other people's work just fine)
> 
> So please, if you see any mistakes in the story (previous, current, and future chapters), please let me know about them! I will gladly fix them! And since this is my first AO3 fic, if you think any tags should be changed, added, or removed, let me know!

A month had passed since Prompto managed to speak to Noctis. Within the first week, he could comfortably say that Noctis thought of him as a friend. Or.. assume Noctis did. Either way, he decided to try and invite the prince to hang outside of school today. Whether or not the prince was allowed to go places aside from school on his own would be a huge factor in how Prompto carried out his mission. In fact, he doubted he’d be able to carry out the mission if he couldn’t go to places.

In his spare time during the first week, Prompto had searched for what kind of sites and games were censored in Lucis and was surprised to find that.. None of them were. Hell, he even found some sites that he could have sworn were blocked in Niflheim. It was nice to know he didn’t have to worry about any weird censorship laws, though.

After getting his stuff ready, Prompto left, throwing his shoes on as he closed the door behind him. The movement of trying to close a door and put on his shoes sent him falling over, landing with a thud on the ground. 

He sat up and groaned. No doubt his face was covered in dirt now. Not to mention it hurt, as well as his hands and knees where he tried to stop his fall. Humiliation burned in him and he quickly looked around to make sure no one saw what happened. Well.. it’d probably be better if someone saw it; his clumsiness would make him appear less suspicious than he hoped he already did. But that didn’t make it any less embarrassing. 

Fortunately or unfortunately (he wasn’t sure which now), no one had been around to see his fall. He gathered the things that fell out of his backpack and stuffed them back in, properly closing the door when he was done. He began to run to the school- and tripped on his shoes. He caught himself before he fell on his face again, sighed to himself for being such an idiot, put his shoes completely on and tied them, and jogged to the school, managing to avoid any other incidents. 

——-

When Prompto got to the school, Noctis wasn’t there yet, so he waited at the gates. A few minutes later, the tell-tale black car the prince always rode in drove up, and he stepped out. Immediately he noticed Prompto standing at the gates and walked over, waving his hand as a greeting.

Noctis looked him up and down, a grin rising on his face, before finally saying “The hell got you so messed up? Tornado come down on you or something?”   
  
The comment made the embarrassment of this morning fresh in his mind and, his face a little red, Prompto defensively replied, “I don’t look  _ that  _ bad!” Or at least, he hoped he didn’t.

The grin turned into a smirk, “Oh, then what  _ did _ happen?”

“I… I-” Astrals above, it was so embarrassing to admit. “I.. tripped.”

“Must have been quite a fall.”

“..I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

The prince let out a huff of laughter “Your hair looks like a chocobo butt!”

“It does not!”   


“Look in a mirror!”

Prompto pouted, but he couldn’t help the upwards turn of his lips. He shook his head and tried to pat his hair down so it was at least somewhat neat.. Or at the very least, no longer a chocobo’s butt. He wasn’t sure how well he did, and the fact that the somewhat annoying smirk never left Noctis’ face wasn’t very reassuring. 

Letting his hands fall to his sides, giving up, he looked back to Noctis, who was still giving his hair a discouraging smirk, and asked the question that he needed to, “So, like, are you allowed to go to places like the arcade or something or are you stuck, crammed in this school, your car, and the.. ‘Citadel’?”

Noctis shrugged. “Yeah, I can go out to places, but I gotta call Specs ahead of time. Why?”

“I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the arcade, go see a movie, or something. You know, hang outside of school?” Prompto tried his best to keep the question sounding casual, but he wasn’t sure how well he was doing on that.

“Hmm… yeah, sure let me call up Specs real quickly and tell him. After school, today?” Noctis began to pull out his phone.

That was.. Incredibly easy. Assuming.. “Specs” would let them go. “Yeah, sounds great. Uhh.. who’s ‘Specs’?"

In the middle of pressing in the numbers, the prince paused. “Hmm… Ignis. He’s my ‘royal advisor’. My ‘royal mom’ seems more appropriate sometimes, honestly. He’s the one who drives me here everyday. I call him Specs cause- you know- he wears glasses.”

“A-Ah,” Well, that was useful information. A “royal mom” definitely seemed like someone who could get in the way of the mission… Prompto shrugged it off for now and watched as Noctis pressed the remaining numbers, and listened when the prince held the phone to his ear to speak to Ignis.

It seemed like Ignis picked up rather quickly- no more than five seconds later, Noctis was already speaking into the phone, “Hey, Ignis, I’m gonna stay out a bit after school. ...Nah, it’s cool, I just wanted to hang out with the friend I told you about earlier. ...Yeah, he said probably the arcade or theatre… Alright, if you’re going to get so fussy about it, I’ll ask him!” He held the phone away from his mouth as he turned to Prompto. “Royal mom wants to know where we’re planning to go.”

Prompto chuckled at the nickname that had apparently replaced “Specs” before replying, “I guess the arcade?”

The Prince returned to his phone. “Alright, we’re going to the arcade. ..Yeah, yeah, I’ll be careful. ..Yeah sure because someone’s going to get the bright idea to waltz on up to the fucking prince and kidnap him in broad daylight when his friend is right next to him.” Kind of worrying that Noctis trusted Prompto that much already.. “...Okay I have to head to class now, bye Ignis.” 

He abruptly ended the phone call, and Prompto swore he could hear another voice on the other line saying “Noctis, don’t you dar-!” before it was cut off.

Prompto laughed and let a grin grow on his face. “Oh no, you cut off the royal mom! Looks like Mr. Prince here is gonna get grounded!”

Noctis shrugged, “He’ll get over it.”

“I hope so, dude.”

The two finally left from the school gates and entered the building, chatting as they put their stuff in their lockers and headed to class.

\-----

The classes seemed to go by quickly- they always did with Noctis. Somehow even dumb looks they shared from across the room made the process all the more easy. Classes weren’t that hard to begin with; apparently the education he received in Niflheim over-prepared him for attending a public school. But that just made them boring, so he was glad to be able to be goofy with Noctis. Prompto doubted he would be able to make it through every school day were it not for the prince’s antics.

The thought brought a fresh pang of guilt to his heart, which he quickly shoved aside as the two left the building with backpacks in hand.

“Right, so the arcade, you said?” Noctis was pulling something up on his phone- w-was that Google Maps?! Did the  _ prince _ not know his way around his own city?!

“Uh- right. Yeah. But first, can we stop at my apartment? I need to grab something real quickly.” He didn’t really, but he thought it’d be a good chance to see if Noctis was even allowed to go to other people’s houses as well.

“Sure. Lead the way.”

Prompto had to stop himself from gaping like a fish at the statement- a call to Ignis wasn’t even necessary?! The prince was allowed to waltz around a random neighbourhood, possibly even go into a random house, where he could be completely alone and easily kidnapped? Why did Niflheim not send a spy in sooner? Everything about this was far too easy! 

Recovering from the shock of realizing how little security the prince had around him, Prompto led the way to the apartment he was living at, realizing he’d need to actually grab something from there now. Well, it’d been two weeks since the last letter, so maybe he could say he went to grab that? But it seemed too insignificant to make a stop for. Not to mention, if it was the same as the last letter (which was about the same thing as the first), he couldn’t let Noctis see it. Maybe he could grab his camera? That was the only thing he had that he could make a viable excuse for stopping and making such a detour. 

Approaching the apartment, Prompto took the mail from his mailbox. Like he suspected, there the twice-monthly letter was. Oddly enough, the handwriting on the envelope seemed to be different. It was closer to the handwriting of one of Iedolas’ servants. 

“What’s that?” Prompto jumped at Noctis’ voice behind him, apparently having forgotten he was there.

Turning around, Prompto waved his hands with the letter in one while answering, “Just a letter from my-uh- parents! They uh- they’re not around much so they often send me money to uh- you know... stay alive.” 

“Is this what you came all the way here for?”

“Nah, I was hoping to bring my camera along. Snap some pics of us just having fun!” Prompto genuinely meant it, even if he came up with it as an excuse and the main reason he had the camera was for his mission.

Noctis sighed, seeming somewhat displeased, but said, “Yeah go ahead. Can’t guarantee you’ll get many good shots of me.”

“Are you challenging my photography skills?!”

“I didn’t even know you had any!”

“Well, now you do!" The “argument” seemingly settled, Prompto opened the apartment door. “You can- uh- come in if you’d like. I’ll just read the letter real quickly and grab the camera.” He held the door open for the prince when he stepped in, then walked over to the counter and opened the letter, and was relieved to see that the handwriting inside was the same as the handwriting as the envelope- meaning he should be able to expect a far more... humane response. Glossing over the contents of the letter, he deduced it should be fine for Noctis to see, and started to read it seriously, although reading it to himself rather than out loud

The letter read:

“Dear Prompto,

I hope this letter finds you in good health! I’m so proud of you! I can’t believe you’ve grown to be the boy you are today. And no, I won’t stop calling you boy until you’re legally allowed to drink! Here’s your money, don’t spend it all in one place! I just can’t wait to see you again!

Love,

~~ Melony! ~~

Mom!”

Reading the leader filled him with joy. It.. felt like an actual letter from someone who could be argued as his mom. “Melony” had been scribbled out so that it was almost incomprehensible, but if he squinted, he could make it out. Of course she’d be the one they ended up choosing to write him letters, she was one of the most motherly figures he had.

He shrugged when he looked up at Noctis, who was looking at him with a somewhat weird expression. He headed for his room to grab his camera.

On his way to his room, memories of Melony flashed through his mind. Memories of her helping him learn how to take care of himself, memories of her embracing him whenever he was upset, giving him hugs that were always so comforting, holding him until he cried himself to sleep on some of the worst days. If anyone deserved the title of his “mom”, she did.

He picked up his camera and returned to Noctis. “Sorry about the holdup, let’s go!”

The two of them left and headed for the arcade.

\-----

The arcade was incredibly fun- Prompto didn’t think he had ever had that much fun before. It was a bit worrying at times, such as when they played a first person shooter and Noctis noticed how good he was at the game, but his skill ended up being chalked up to the fact that he mained a gunner in Kings’ Knight. The sun was going down by the time they figured they should leave.

Noctis pulled out his phone before looking at Prompto. “It’s getting late. Do you want a ride back to your apartment? Or, hell, you could probably even stay at my apartment if Specs isn’t too pissed about me hanging up on him earlier.”

Prompto nearly choked on air. “You live in an apartment?!”

The  _ prince _ nodded, as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with that statement. “I mean it’s some sort of fancy hotel apartment but yeah. Had to get out of the Citadel, you know?”

The only thing on Prompto’s mind after hearing that was  _ “How is this dude still alive? How has he not been kidnapped by bounty hunters or some other nameless threat?!”  _

He shook his head before answering the original question. “I mean- if I can, it’d be great to stay over at your place.” He felt like he was finding out so much useful… and somewhat concerning… information in just this one day. “Of course, if it’s not possible, I’m fine with getting a ride back. Hell, walking is fine. We walked here, why not walk back?”

The prince frowned. “Yeah but I’d rather make sure nothing bad happens to you, considering it’s night now.”

_ Pretty sure you’d wish many bad things to happen to me if you knew my true intentions.  _ He huffed a sigh, but didn’t vocally protest when the prince dialed what he assumed to be Ignis’ number. 

Noctis held the phone to his ear and waited a few seconds. He opened his mouth, then cringed. Prompto could almost hear the nagging he must be getting. He struggled to speak for a bit, trying to start a sentence only to be immediately cut off. Finally, whoever was on the other line seemed to have calmed down, and Noctis could speak. Once again, Prompto was left with only half of the conversation. “Yeah I’m a dumbass, I know. ....Look, it really was getting close to school starting! I didn’t want the conversation to drag! ...Great, now that we got that cleared up-” It was obvious to even Prompto that absolutely nothing was cleared up “-I need to ask you something. ...Yeah, about Prompto. Can he stay at my apartment? ...Oh.. okay, got it. Well, could you at least give him a ride home? ...No, I’m just worried about something happening to him. ..Yea, we’re still at the arcade. ...Great, you’re the best, Ignis!” He hung up, and this time, there was no protest cut off from the other line.

Prompto could gather what had happened, but he decided to ask anyway, “So, what’d the royal mom say?”

“Royal mom said you couldn’t stay- Security reasons, I’ve only known you for about a month. But he can drive you back to your apartment.”

Prompto debated it. Riding with Ignis seemed to have more cons than pros. The main driver of the prince would find out where the traitor lives, Ignis might be able to figure out there’s something off about him, Ignis might even figure out who he is, his signal could go off and he’d have to hijack the car… He shook his head. “I’m fine, I can walk home.” Okay maybe the hijacking thing would be more favorable because he’d be with Noctis, but he wanted to hurt as few people as possible whenever it happened.

Noctis’ expression became stubborn... as well as his voice when he spoke, “Out of the question. I’m not letting you get kidnapped in the night if I can help it.” 

Prompto opened his mouth to protest but ended up closing it. He had long figured out that the stubborn expression meant almost nothing would change his mind. An unwilling “Fine” came out of his mouth and the two of them waited for a few minutes. 

It was too boring to wait there for so long, so they took their phones and played King’s Knight. Finally, a car pulled up and Prompto recognized it as the one that he always saw at school. Without a moment of hesitation, Noctis walked up to the car and opened the door, sliding in to sit down in the backseat. Noticing Prompto’s hesitation, he patted the seat next to him to urge him inside. 

Prompto inhaled before stepping into the car. Sitting in it felt comfortable, it was almost immediately clear to him that the car was a luxury. He looked to the driver’s seat, where a man with neatly combed dirty blond hair and, most recognizably, a set of glasses, looked back to him from the rearview mirror. 

Awkwardly, Prompto waved. “H-Hi. I- uh- I guess your Ignis, then?”   


The man nodded. “I take it you’re Prompto?”

“Yea..”

“Could you point me in the directions of your house?”

“Yeah, of course!”

The trip went smooth enough, Prompto and Noctis continuing their game or striking up a conversation, only stopping so that Prompto could give Ignis directions.

They arrived at Prompto’s apartment building and Prompto left the car, thanking them both for taking him back, and the car left. He entered his apartment and went to his room, browsing through the photos he took during the day. A few of the selfies looked a bit awkward- why was he so bad at looking at the camera in these? He deleted the photos he liked the least and saved the rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I.. kinda wanna make an "Episode Melony" chapter now where I just go over Melony and how she's basically Prompto's mom...
> 
> Also this chapter is 3000 words which is just under the word count Chapters 1-3 combined so... woops...
> 
> Temporary note: I'm sorry that Chapter 5 is taking a bit.. I've gotten sick and it's a bit hard to motivate myself to do much of anything when I'm sneezing every fifteen minutes and feel like shit.
> 
> Updated note: I feel better, don't worry, I just.. lost motivation by the time I got better. I swear I'll continue this once I'm back in the FFXV fandom but.. I just can't make myself write about something I'm not currently into...


End file.
